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Booker t. washington and w. e. b. du bois compare and contrast essay
Booker t. washington and w. e. b. du bois compare and contrast essay
Booker t. washington and w. e. b. du bois compare and contrast essay
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While it was originally W.E.B. Du Bois intention that those who were apart of the 10% to excel in general society and be a means to improve the black social and economic standing within the broader society, many of the individuals relinquished their ties to black society in order to cement their status. W.E.B. Du Bois viewed that the best way blacks could better themselves in white society was through the “Talented Tenth”. The “Talented Tenth involved 10% of black men would become leaders of the race through education. These men would go into white society and use their education as a means to improving black social and economic standing in that society. Du Bois wanted to use the talented tenth to fight for equal rights for all African-Americans. Contrasting from fellow black leader, Booker T. Washington, Du Bois thought that education was how black society would rise to equivalency. Du Bois noted that Washington wanted black to passively submit to white authority while learning vocational training instead of the liberal arts education white elites received. Washington wa...
Alridge, Derrick P. The Educational Thought of W.E.B. Du Bois: An Intellectual History. New York: Teachers College, 2008. Print.
What is the point of educating the African Americans if all they will be is paid slaves anyhow?, “Lo! we are diseased and dying, cried the dark hosts; we cannot write, our voting is vain; what need of education, since we must always cook and serve?” (par. 11). Du Bois doesn’t understand the issue with African Americans living among, equal to, and determined with the Whites, “Will America be poorer if she replace her brutal dyspeptic blundering with light-hearted but determined Negro humility? or her coarse and cruel wit with loving jovial good-humor? or her vulgar music with the soul of the Sorrow Songs” (par. 12). Du Bois and the African American population are determined to change the mindset of the Whites and America as a whole to be more accepting of African Americans and ultimately
Du Bois wanted civil rights as well, but in contrast, he believe the only way to get it was through political action and demanding for equal rights. He also believed education would get the black race somewhere. “The South believed an educated Negro to be a dangerous Negro. And the South was not wholly wrong; for education among all kinds of men always has had, and always will have, an element of danger and revolution, of dissatisfaction and discontent. Nevertheless, men strive to know” (Du Bois Page) as W.E.B. Du Bois said. This quote explains how Du Bois felt about education, he thought education would put him at the top because the whites would fear the knowledge of educated African Americans. His main focus when writing was racial discrimination and the advancement of black people. His work was very broad and he combines history with proposals on how to change, like in this work “The Souls of Black Folks.” This is just a collection of autobiographies on the African American life. He mentions things like the “talented tenth” in The Negro Problem, which describes one out of ten blacks becoming leaders. He also coined several terms, including the “veil.” He says “the Negro is like the seventh son, born with a veil” (Du Bois 887). Du Bois believed a veil was being placed over African Americans so that they are not seen as they are. They are true Americans, but whites do not see that and blacks start to lose sight of that. Another important term,
Education is an ideological mechanism African-Americans used to enhance their social standing in the United States soon after liberation. During the period of W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington, the sort of education explored by African- Americans was the focus of intense discussion. Washington was an enthusiastic supporter of industrial/vocational education while DuBois supported both higher and industrial education, but greatly emphasized on the higher education (Ogbu 23). A lot of people in the Black society accepted DuBois’s stand on higher education remained the better proposal because it was thought to uplift the community. They thought that Washington’s approach was inefficient and left the whole race exposed to violation by White Americans.
However, because of the dominant, male white culture, this very learned man and his ideas have been neglected. Even to this day, people know of him as an individual who studied marginalized black societies and an activist fighting for justice on behalf of these minorities. However, society fails to recognize the enormous contributions he made to the practices of sociology. Furthermore, in the rare times Du Bois is mentioned as a sociologist, he is mentioned as a “black sociologist” rather than just simply a sociologist (Green 528). By putting a race description in Du Bois’s title, one is simply saying that he was different from all the rest of the sociologists at the time because of his skin color. The research Du Bois and other black sociologists did focused on racial discrimination, inequality and black lives. However, their work was mostly ignored because it was the study of blacks studying black lives, which was unpopular at the time. Although Du Bois was a well educated man and an impressive sociologist, a significant amount of his work was discredited because he was a black man studying the lives of marginalized black people and the dominant culture did not want to pay heed to his field work in the early
He demonstrates that African Americans are like other humans and under the justice system they must have the equal rights and liberty that America guarantees to all men in its Constitution. Du Bois uses a metaphor of a veil, which translates into a barrier that separates the identity of blacks and whites.... ... middle of paper ... ... He prophesizes the difficulties that have occurred to the Blacks in the twentieth century.
Booker T. Washington was an African American leader who established an African-American college in 1181. Then in 1895 delivered the Atlanta Compromise Speech to an audience of mainly Southerners, but some Northerners were present. In his speech he made a few points. He said, “No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.” Washington believed that the African American race needed to learn first that manual labor was just as important as the work of intellects. He thought that until they learned this they were not worthy of becoming intellects themselves. The color line is thus important in teaching them this lesson. He also said, “It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of these privileges.” His opinion was that one day blacks would deserve to have equal rights with the whites, but right now in 1895 the blacks needed to be...
W.E.B. DuBois attempted to tell African Americans what they should learn throughout schooling. He thought academics were of the utmost importance in order for African Americans to exist socially in society. Through academic schooling, he thought that 10 percent of the African American society would succeed and move on to become doctors, lawyers, politicians, etc.; they were called “the talented ten.” The subject material that would advance their learning would consist of the “trivium” and the “quadrivium.” The...
Like Washington, Dubois agreed that “blacks” needed to become economically independent and find civil equality. However, W.E.B Dubois was offended at racial injustice and inequality. Du Bois understood Washington’s program, but believed this wasn’t the solution Unlike Washington, he demanded that African Americans should immediately have the right to vote, equal rights, and be granted equal educational opportunities. WEB Dubois wanted educational reform in a way that fulfilled requirements for African American students. WEB Du Bois declared African American demands through his “Declaration of the Principles of the Niagara Movement,” in which he demanded social equality.
Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois are two incredibly famous civil rights activists in United States history. Although they both sought to uplift blacks socially and economically across the country, they clashed over the best strategy for doing so. Coming from vastly different backgrounds, it’s understandable as to why they disagreed. However, as is evident by our current societal problems, Du Bois was the one who had the correct plan. That doesn’t mean that Washington’s ideas were wrong, but they were a temporary solution to a permanent and systematic problem.
Du Bois was a scholar activist who proposed lots of solutions for the issue of racism and discrimination. Du Bois was sort of an opposition to Washington’s ideology, as he strongly believes that it can only help to disseminate white’s oppression towards blacks. We can see his dissatisfaction based on his writing with a title On Booker T. Washington and Others. He wrote that Washington’s philosophy was really not a good idea because the white extremists from the south will perceived this idea as blacks’ complete surrender for the request of civil rights and political equality. Du Bois had a different view on this issue if compared to Washington because of their different early lifestyles. Unlike Washington, Du Bois was born free in the North and he did not receive any harsh experienced as a slave himself and was also grew up in a predominantly white area. In his writings, it is obvious that he thought that the most important thing that the black should gain was to have the equality with whites. Regarding the issue of the voting rights, Du Bois strongly believed that it is important for black people to agitate to get the right to vote. He also believed that the disfranchisement of poor men could mean the catastrophe of South’s democracy (Painter 157). In his writing with a title Of Our Spiritual Strivings, he wrote that it was significant for blacks to exercise the right to vote because there were whites that wanted to put them back in their inferior position—and it was
...ch as W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington, have had on blacks in higher education has affected the field for more than just African Americans. That’s the type of transformative leadership that was needed to revolutionize higher education.
Washington 's programme naturally takes an economic cast” (Du Bois). Du Bois believed that Washington’s theory was a gospel of Work and Money that ultimately overshadowed the higher aims of life” Later he makes another statement so powerful that should have made all African Americans want to stand up and fight for a better social status and rights for both the South and North. He goes on stating “The growing spirit of kindliness and reconciliation between the North and South after the frightful differences of a generation ago ought to be a source of deep congratulation to all, and especially to those whose mistreatment caused the war; but if that reconciliation is to be marked by the industrial slavery and civic death of those same black men, with permanent legislation into a position of inferiority, then those black men, if they are really men, are called upon by every consideration of patriotism and loyalty to oppose such a course by all civilized methods, even though such opposition involves disagreement with Mr. Booker T. Washington.” (Du
The first argument Booker T. Washington makes is that blacks should seek an education that provides them with the opportunity to gain employment by meeting the sp...
Unlike Du Bois, Booker T. Washington defines a Black education is one which teaches vocational skills. Washington’s definition of Blackness is different from Du Bois’s drastically as he was a direct descendant of slaves. His Southern perspective is seen clearly as he places the importance of labor before education. In “The Struggle for an Education”, Washington boasts of his entry into Hampton as “the sweeping of that room was [his] college examination, and never did any youth pass an examination for entrance into Harvard or Yale that gave him more genuine satisfaction” (581). Washington discredits a formal education, and demands a vocational education. Washington stresses the labor which he had to do in order to gain entrance into Hampton